A sci-fi icon who first shot to fame as a sentient android crew member was seen on a rare public outing this week.
The legendary actor, 77, is best known for his role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Data – a role he played from 1987-1994, in four films, and Star Trek: Picard from 2020–2023.
Although he is most indelibly connected to Star Trek, he has guested on a string of TV shows including Friends, Mad About You, The Blacklist and The Big Bang Theory .
His movies have included Independence Day; Dude, Where’s My Car?; South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut and the Martin Scorsese picture The Aviator.
He has also acted onstage, such as in Broadway revivals of 1776, a musical about the American Revolution, and Man of La Mancha, a musical of Don Quixote.
So can you guess who he is?
A sci-fi icon who first shot to fame as a sentient android crew member was seen on a rare public outing this week
The legendary actor, 77, is best known for his role on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Data – a role he played from 1987- 1994, in four films, and Star Trek: Picard from 2020–2023 – who is he?
It’s Brent Spiner! The talented actor looked unrecognizable as he stepped out for a stroll in a black hoodie and shorts.
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The star won fans all over the world for his chiseled and earnest portrayal of Data on the show, led by Patrick Stewart in his fan favorite role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard,
Data’s keen intelligence and inscrutability enabled him to perform a similar character function as that of Leonard Nimoy’s Dr. Spock on the original 1960s Star Trek show.
Beloved by fans of the franchise, Spiner reprised the role for various movies as well as the recent TV series Star Trek: Picard and Star Trek: Lower Decks.
Spiner’s career began in the 1970s on the New York stage, and by the 1980s he was in the original cast of the legendary musical Sunday in the Park with George.
With songs by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine, the show starred Mandy Patinkin as pointillist painter Georges Seurat and Bernadette Peters as his muse Dot, while Spiner played a pair of supporting roles.
The year that Sunday in the Park with George opened on Broadway – 1984 – Spiner struck out to Los Angeles to embark on a screen career.
It’s Brent Spiner! The actor is pictured in 1987 on Star Trek: The Next Generation as Data, a sentient android crew member of the starship USS Enterprise-D
(front row, left to right) Marina Sirtis, Patrick Stewart, Gates McFadden, (back row, left to right) Jonathan Frakes, Spiner, Whoopi Goldberg, LeVar Burton and Michael Dorn are pictured on Star Trek: The Next Generation
The star looked sprightly as he headed out for a stroll in LA
Spiner wore a black hoodie and shorts for his outing
He memorably played the eccentric and wild-haired Dr. Brackish Okun, the director of research at Area 51, in 1996 Will Smith alien blockbuster, Independence Day – pictured with Bill Pullman and James Rebhorn
After jobbing around on series like Night Court and Cheers, he successfully landed the role of Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987.
Spiner remained on the show throughout its seven-season run from 1987 to 1994 and also appeared on four movie spin-offs from the 1990s into the early 2000s – Star Trek Generations, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek: Nemesis.
He memorably played the eccentric and wild-haired Dr. Brackish Okun, the director of research at Area 51, in 1996 Will Smith alien blockbuster, Independence Day.
Diehard fans were able to catch him on Star Trek: Picard from 2020 to 2023, and could hear his voice on the animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks in 2024.
Earlier this year, he announced that he and his Star Trek: The Next Generation co-star Jonathan Frakes – who played Riker – are starting a celebrity interview podcast.
Entitled Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny, the show is ‘this is not a Star Trek podcast,’ they insisted in their introductory YouTube video.
However they have ‘surrendered to fate’ and resigned themselves to the fact that the show that brought them to stardom will be a subject of their podcast.
